To kick off the Christmas season, Student Government created the “5 Days of Christmas” celebration which included Christmas sock and hat Monday, Saint Nick party on Tuesday, gingerbread house contest on Wednesday, ugly sweater contest on Thursday, and a class competition with door decorating on Friday.  Not all of the fun was awarded with House points but as you can see below, certain items were point worthy!

House Fides continued their tradition of showing their Christmas spirit by Christmas Caroling in the morning the weeks between Thanksgiving and finals. (33pts)

The ultimate winner of the Ugly Sweater Contest was junior, Laura Sneed, of House Fides (15pts).  The class winners were Mason (12th) and Callie (9th) from House Sapientia (10pts) and Emma S (10th) and Sydney H (8th) of House Audacia (10pts).

For the Door Decorating Contest, 1st place went to the Senior Class and 2nd place to the Junior class.
12th 11th

Below are pictures of the winners of the Gingerbread House Competition.

Points were awarded for attending and serving during the Grammar School Christmas Program. Audacia 8pts, Fides 10pts, Sapientia 10pts

The monthly House Meetings also occurred during the “5 Days of Christmas” celebration.  During the individual House meetings, there was a game to see who could draw the best Christmas scene on a paper plate (which was on their head).  Proving to be quite challenging (and funny), House Audacia came out on top with members receiving the highest number of points for their “artistic” renditions of a star topped Christmas tree beside a fireplace and mantle decorated with stockings.

1st place drawers – House Audacia with Parker, Emma S, and Kirby – 15pts
2nd place drawers – House Fides with Katie, Evan, and Weston – 10pts
3rd place drawers – House Sapientia with Lauren, Oliver, and Anna – 5pts

For “fun” the House Captains and Prefects played a little Candy Cane Challenge game.

During the week, SG’s Community Service Prefect, Emily G, coordinated a time to stuff boxes for Operation Christmas Child with the grammar school classes.  Then at the end of the week, 20 members (ages 13+) of the Upper School served at the Operation Christmas Child processing center preparing the boxes to be shipped worldwide.
Audacia 42pts, Fides 54pts, Sapientia 24pts

As busy little elves, House Audacia members wrapped books for 1st grade students in the public school system.  They will be given out at the end of the school year by some members of the RCCC student rotary and some of the English teachers at RCCC.  (10pts)  But Audacia’s generous spirit didn’t stop there, they also bought the favorite candy of each teacher and staff member and surprised them with the treat and a sweet Christmas note. (House spirit points – 15)  And that spirit was also shared with House Sapientia who surprised Mr. Mario with a gift card and made over-sized Christmas cards for Mrs. Haycox and Mr. Mario signed by all the house members.  House Spirit points – 15)

And showing their love and support, all the Upper School students signed a card for Mrs. Dearing and Mrs. Prince!

Warrior Basketball games also filled the month of December.  Moms and Dads have been contributing to their student’s House points every time they volunteer to serve in concessions or at the ticket table for the games.  And when students come out and cheer on their Warrior teams, they rack up the spirit points too.  Audacia 156pts, Fides 130pts, Sapientia 110pts

Serving as spotters and keeping the stats for the boys varsity team, Cameron and Kirby go to each game – home and away – and thus bring in more service points for House Sapientia and House Audacia.  And Weston and Ben from House Fides serve by working the clock and scoreboard at the MS basketball games.

House Fides created a shirt tracker board to reward House spirit.  Very clever!  (5pts)Note – With the cold weather, please let your House Captains know if you need a long sleeve House shirt ($16 each).

Congratulations to Erin Davis of House Sapientia for being accepted by the Perry Initiative to be part of their one-day Perry Outreach Program at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.  Erin will hear from women leaders in the fields of medicine and engineering as well as get the chance to perform mock orthopedic surgeries and biomechanics experiments.  (5pts)

In preparation for the removal of the first portable trailer, House Sapientia hosted a service day to remove the decking and boardwalk surrounding the trailer.  Eight members from Sapientia and 2 members from Audacia showed up – during their Christmas break!! –  to do some hard labor.  Sapientia 72pts, Audacia 18pts

The excitement over the Building Generosity Campaign continues.  The House that was first to have ALL its families contributing to the campaign was House Sapientia (50pts).  And House Fides voted to give all the money that they had raised for a Gaga Ball Pit ($200) towards the campaign.  (50pts)

Core Values for 12/13-12/16:
House Audacia

• Two Members demonstrated KINDNESS by giving Mr. Morton a very meaningful gift for his birthday and for Christmas.
• One Member displayed CHIVALRY by opening the door for classmates and teachers.
• One Member displayed SERVICE by helping with the candy grams.

House Fides

• Two Members displayed SERVICE by helping with the candy grams.

House Sapientia

• Two Members displayed SERVICE by helping with the candy grams.
• One Member demonstrated THOUGHTFULNESS by taking out Mrs. Sneed’s trash.
• One Member demonstrated KINDNESS by volunteering to babysit for Mr. Morton as a Christmas gift.
• One Member demonstrated GENEROSITY by giving Mr. Morton a bag of Werther’s Original candies…Mr. Morton’s favorite.

Current Standings as of 12/24/16:

      1170pts           1063pts           1066pts

The 2nd Quarter winner will be announced the first week of January after GPA’s are submitted!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(Sometimes while viewing the blog posts via a smart phone or email, the images and spacing may be off or skewed.  To see the post as it is intended it is best to view it at http://covenantclassicalhouseblog.org/ )

The CCS Upper School students have been busy this fall.  Listed below are some of the fun activities that have been going on and the points they earned.

Anatomy and Physiology Club – Sapientia Prefect, Erin Davis, wrote a proposal and received approval for an Anatomy and Physiology club to meet twice a week during lunch in Mrs. Quillen’s classroom. Erin’s initiative and leadership is exemplary.  By taking on the additional role of facilitating the meetings, Erin is not only providing a fun and educational extracurricular experience for upper school students but also providing a means for the Houses to receive academic house points by attending the meetings.  Well Done!  Mtgs to date – Audacia 8pts, Fides 5pts, Sapientia 15pts

Canned Food Drive – SG’ Community Service Prefect, Emily Goddard, organized a canned food drive just in time for the Thanksgiving break.  She furthered the incentive to give generously by making it a House competition.  All three Houses contributed generously to the cause but 1st place went to Audacia, 2nd place to Fides, and 3rd place to Sapientia.

Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night – Remember to submit any pictures from Spirit Nights for points!  I know more of you attend than submit texts so why not help out your House with more points as you support CCS!

Upper School Dance – SG knows how to throw a party!  Social Prefect, Chandler Lawing, aided by her decoration team, celebrated FALL with a fun costume dance.  Points for members attending – Audacia 34pts, Fides 36pts, Sapientia 36pts

Fides Service Day – In an effort to bless the school and Mr. Mario Hardnick, Fides members organized a Service Day on a Friday after school.  Ten members came out and served.  Community Service points for Fides – 30pts.

Fides Thankful Tree – As a visual reminder of all that we have to be thankful for at CCS, House Fides distributed leaves on the lockers and to the teachers asking them to write down items for which they are thankful.  School Spirit points – 10pts

Pumpkin Seeds in Lounge – To bless their peers with the taste of Fall, Audacia members roasted the pumpkin seeds that they had cleaned out of the pumpkins used in the carving contest and put them in the student lounge for a nutritious snack! School spirit points – 5pts

Santa Scramble – The Rose brothers represented CCS well in the 2016 Santa Scramble.  Parker finished 1st in his age group and Bryson placed 4th in his age group. Well done!  More points for Audacia!

Warrior Basketball Game – Come out and support Warrior Middle School and Varsity Basketball!  The games are so fun and your attendance just builds more school spirit! Students that sign the sheet at the ticket table or send in a text showing they are at the game receive House points for attending. 
NOTE – Parents and students can earn House points for their student by serving in the concessions.  Please email Mrs. Haycox for information on how to sign up!

Congratulations to our CCS Scripps Spelling Bee winners!
1st Place: Parker Rose (House Audacia)
2nd Place: Hannah Gromis (grammar school)
3rd Place: Ava Justice (grammar school)
All three will advance to the county bee next month. Way to go, spellers!

Colleges Applied to (5pts each application) – Both in the 1st and 2nd quarter, points have been awarded to seniors for each college application they submit.  We want them to reach high and cast a large net as they make plans for their future.  So far in this quarter –  Audacia 30pts, Fides 30pts, Sapientia 20pts

Email Test – To foster good communication between House members and leaders, the House Team created an email test and competition.  As much as teenagers are on their phones and laptops, one would think that checking their email would come natural, but amazingly it is a skill that must be encouraged!  HA!  The house that had the most members respond to the email from Mrs. Haycox in 48hrs won.  Results –
1st Place – Fides, 2nd place Sapientia, 3rd Place Audacia.

Current Point Standings:

      612pts            521pts             558pts

(Sometimes while viewing the blog posts via a smart phone or email, the images and spacing may be off or skewed.  To see the post as it is intended it is best to view it at http://covenantclassicalhouseblog.org/ )

The 3rd Annual Fall House Games Competition wrapped up just in time for the Thanksgiving Break.  Moving the games during the last half of the school day, rather than after school, kept the attendance and spirit high! As in previous years, the competition was fierce but filled with laughter and sportsmanship. For each game, the house leaders had to strategically determine which members should participate based on the skills needed or the willingness of the members to do some of the crazier activities. Each game had the 1st place winners received 1 point, 2nd place winners received 2pts, and 3rd place winners received 3pts.  The “Ultimate Winner of the House Games” was the House with the lowest number of points.

Throughout the afternoon the points were close between the three Houses but at the end of the day, Sapientia was announced the winner!
Congratulations Sapientia!  Well Done!

Final Scores:
Sapientia – 25points
Audacia  29 points
Fides  33 points

Below are some of the pictures from the fun afternoon!

Balloon Stomp – 1st Sapientia, 2nd Fides, 3rd Audacia

Pumpkin Seed Spit –
Boys 1st Audacia, 2nd Fides, 3rd Sapientia
Girls 1st Audacia, 2nd Sapientia, 3rd Fides

Granny Style Hoops – sadly we have no pictures of this game because it required all the house members to participate.  1st Audacia, 2nd Sapientia, 3rd Fides

5 Kernels of Corn blanket relay – 1st Sapientia, 2nd Fides, 3rd Audacia

Clean Your Plate Challenge – (a thanksgiving meal of baby food!) – All teams received a 1st place score in this game because it was “under protest” due to the House Advisors having different interpretations/definitions of a “clean plate!”

Cookie Face – This game had 4 heats.
Heat 1 – 1st Audacia, 2nd Sapientia, 3rd Fides
Heat 2 – 1st Audacia, 2nd Sapientia, 3rd Fides
Heat 3 – 1st Sapientia, 2nd Fides, 3rd Audacia
Heat 4 – 1st Audacia, 2nd Fides, 3rd Sapientia

Turkey Knees – no winners or losers on this games…just some sticky sore knees!

Flip, Whistle, Chew, Sort and Slurp Relay – Certainly the most complicated of the games requiring one student to flip and land a water bottle, another student to whistle after eating A LOT of crackers, another to chew gum and produce a bubble, another to sort M&M’s into color piles, and lastly students had to slurp up Jello and spit it into a cup to a specified level.
Boys 1st Fides, 2nd Sapientia, 3rd Audacia
Girls 1st Sapientia, 2nd Fides, 3rd Audacia

Spirit Banner Competition – 1st Sapientia, 2nd Fides, 3rd Audacia

All in all, the reviews of the day were 2 thumbs up!

Nothing says “Fall” better than pumpkins…so the Houses had a pumpkin carving contest during their most recent House meeting.  Each House had 4 pumpkins to carve and/or decorate any way they would like.

Ahhh…the joys of cleaning out the insides…and sorting for seeds.

House Audacia, posing with their pumpkins, seemed to go with a CCS school and House spirit theme, with swords, shields, and even the word “roar.”

The pumpkins for House Fides were more varied – not so much following a theme but rather reflecting the creativity and interest of the group carving the pumpkin.

And House Sapientia went with a theme of House spirit by highlighting their mascot – the owl.

Close-ups of each pumpkin are below:

The 6th graders were the judges for the competition, and they chose the following winners!

1st and 3rd Place – House Sapientia (combined 20 points)

2nd Place – House Fides (10pts)

House Audacia decided to multi-task during the meeting.  While some were carving pumpkins, others were writing Christmas cards (68 to be exact) to send to our military service men and women in gratitude for their sacrifice and service.  (10pts community service project)

House Audacia is also collecting plastic grocery bags for the remainder of the school year for Cooperative Christian Ministries Crisis Center in Concord.  This service project is for the whole school to participate in, so remember to bring in those bags and place them in Mrs. Quillen’s room.  (10pts – community service project for 2nd qtr)

Fall Festival volunteers: Audacia – 18pts, Fides – 15pts, Sapientia – 15pts

Parent Night Babysitters: Audacia – 18pts, Fides – 15pts, Sapientia – 12pts

Current Point Standings:

175pts               178pts                119pts

House Audacia!

Final Point Totals for 1st quarter:

1st place – Audacia with 2054 points

2nd place – Fides with 1676 points
3rd place – Sapientia with 1600 points

House Captain – Kirby Thigpen
House Prefects – Braeden Gann and Sara Beth Jewell
House Advisors – Mrs. Quillen and Mr. Wilmoth

Congratulations House Audacia for a job well done! 

Continue to “Live Courageously” and keep up the good work!

House Description:   Audacia – Latin for Boldness, Daring
Motto: “Viva audace” (Live courageously)
Colors: Red and Gold
Mascot: Lion
Core Values: Chivalry, Service, Leadership/Authority, Bravery, Courage, Nobility, Initiative
Origin Fable: See house description in the menu bar

(To see the other house descriptions, click the link in the menu bar.)